Help Diagnose Graphics Card Problems

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wpswart006

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Ok, I have an HD4890, and after a recent reinstall of windows, I started noticing Artifacts when gaming.

First I suspected it may be faulty memory. But after windows had to recover from a "driver not responding" I thought it might be driver related. So I Installed a driver that I know works, and after a few minutes of WoW, it artifacts again.

Next on my agenda was temperature.

So I installed GPU-Z and according to the app, my memory temperature is peaking at 96 degrees. So I got a desk fan blowing on my graphics card, peak memory temperatures are down to 80 degrees, but the artifacts still persists.

So now I'm back to faulty memory. I kinda did a memory test but after logging a thousand memory errors I closed it out of sheer depression. This was before the driver part though.

So now I am back to faulty memory. Is there anyway to fix this? ( If it is what is to blame). Or should I be preparing to buy a new graphics card?

Input would be appreciated and rewarded with brownie points :D .

EDIT: The memory in question is video memory on the graphics card self.
 
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I haven't heard of the RAM causing graphic artifacts before? Can't imagine how it could. Rather it would just result in frequent crashes.

If I'm not wrong then I suspect it is definitely the gfx card :( but before throwing it out I would play around with the temperature a bit more. Check the clock speeds are not set higher than default as well and also make sure the fan on the card is spinning freely.

If you are lucky you can fix it and hopefully the card is not faulty, and RAM is very cheap too so don't stress about the RAM.
 
Bobbin said:
I haven't heard of the RAM causing graphic artifacts before? Can't imagine how it could. Rather it would just result in frequent crashes.

If I'm not wrong then I suspect it is definitely the gfx card :( but before throwing it out I would play around with the temperature a bit more. Check the clock speeds are not set higher than default as well and also make sure the fan on the card is spinning freely.

If you are lucky you can fix it and hopefully the card is not faulty, and RAM is very cheap too so don't stress about the RAM.
Click to expand...

Forgive me for not being clear, but I was talking about video memory on the card self.
 
wpswart006 said:
Forgive me for not being clear, but I was talking about video memory on the card self.
Click to expand...

Oh sorry :) I thought half as much but read it again and decided normal ram.

Ah man it doesn't look good then :/

I had to scrap my old 8800gts because the Starcraft 2 main menu had fried it believe or not (I had left it on the menu to go make coffee and watch a series on TV). Was actually a reported incident with a few people around the world. Artifacts everywhere and eventually too bad to even start up windows.
 
If it's out of warranty you could try reflowing it in a oven.
 
wpswart006 said:
Any pointers other than jamming it in the oven, turning up the heat, and hoping for the best?
Click to expand...

TBH, that's probably all you can expect without an industrial grade reflow oven with a known temperature vs. time thermal profile. That said there are some "kitchen methods" floating around out there, but they are seriously "hit and miss".
 
A friend of mine had his 8800GT reflowed at Central Circuits IIRC... But he knew the guy that worked there. It is still working so far.
 
Once they start artifacting there is little you can do beyond reflowing. You sure it's out of warranty?
 
Try underclocking it slightly. My old 4890 is unstable at default clocks due to shoddy components and old age, but works just fine with some speed dropped off core and memory. Haven't noticed much of a speed drop doing this and can now enjoy hours of skyrim as opposed to a few minutes before it locked up.
 
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